I can't believe the outpouring of hugs and advice that I received from yesterday's post and I send a most heart-felt THANK YOU to each and every one of you. I had felt abandoned, and instead realized how rich my life truly was.

My world is held in caring hands (and I love the nipple rings).

I am counting down to the dentist tomorrow. I will still be a nervous wreck, but there is no way that I want to go through this pain for a single moment more, so I will go tomorrow and I will be grateful that I can get this taken care of.

But I am happiest because I am still writing. There are enough prompts out there to keep me busy for the month of April. The first is due on Wednesday, so I finally finished the story I wanted to write for it and sent it to my LC friends for their good eyes before I post. I also drew a piece of art to accompany it, and am still in the process of coloring it. But I will be able to scan it today while I'm at work. My passport hasn't been updated yet, or I would share my completed passport for B2ME month with all of you. I'm sure it won't be much longer before Dawn has the time to do that, though.

Teddy Bears don't lie!

So once again, THANK YOU, to each and every one of you who posted, Emailed, and otherwise let me know I have some value in your life. It means the world to me.

I am counting down to the dentist tomorrow. I will still be a nervous wreck, but there is no way that I want to go through this pain for a single moment more, so I will go tomorrow and I will be grateful that I can get this taken care of.

It will be such a relief. I will be sending you good and positive thoughts that it passes quickly.

Somehow I missed your previous post yesterday (just went to find it!), but I hope all goes well at the dentist tomorrow. As for your friend... she may come back, once she realises how horrid she's been.

Thanks Russa. I doubt my friend will come back, it's just not her style. And I'm not so sure my DH would allow her back in our lives no matter what after the hurt she put me through (he's rather protective - very sweet).

I'll live through the dentist tomorrow, but I'm determined to enjoy today :-)

Now that LJ appears to be functional, here's the little anecdote I wanted to share with you. My late father told this story, and I have always gotten a chuckle out it.

One of the pigs on our farm was a perpetual escape artist. This hog never failed to find a breach in the fence of their pasture. Pigs are quite intelligent so it may be no surprise that he was so clever at finding a way out. But he did not have a random reason for escaping. He loved to lie down on the dirt floor of our garage. That was invariably where my father would find him. No wallowing in the mud like his fellow pigs; I'll note that our "organic, free-range" pigs were not confined to overcrowded quarters but in actual pastures.

My father moved the pigs to another pasture, but this one was guarded by a simple electrified fence -- basically a live wire strung around the periphery of the pasture and at a level that would shock a full-grown pig (they all were) and make any escape effort quite painful. The pigs respected it and for a time, all was well.

However, Mr. Dirt Floor Pig's desire to get to the garage overcame his fear of the fence. He would stand still, several yards from the live wire, and start grunting. Then he would take off at a run, squealing all the while, with an especially shrill squeal when his back hit the live wire, but on he went...right to the garage.

So like Mr. Dirt Floor Pig, you'll need to endure the discomfort at the dentist, but there's sweet relief in sight on the other side. :^)

LOL - That works for me ... "Mr Dirt Floor Pig" I can be. When I was a young archaeologist in New Mexico, we had a summer dig outside a tiny town in the Central Western part of the state. One of the guys who lived in the town had a pet pig. That pig was so smart - truly an amazing animal.

I know exactly how you feel - after a night during which I only managed to sleep from 5am to 7am, despite lots of ibuprofen, I took the bus to the dentist straight away that morning. And afterward, being not in pain really was such a relief! By that time, I wouldn't even have minded if they had just yanked that tooth out.

I have had almost every tooth root filled - I just take my MP3 player, put the dark glasses on, and once Ziggy has the dental dam in place to stop stuff getting into the back of my mouth I lie back and 'write' my stories in my head to my favourite music. I have been known to fall asleep - it really, really, isn't as bad, in reality, as the idea of it is - honestly!

Yes, it's my first (and hopefully my only) root canal. From the number of people who have told me about their personal experiences, it isn't that bad. And I don't have problems with the actual procedure, my problem is with the shots because I am super needle phobic. It causes issues :-) Once I'm past the shots, all is good, and I have been known to fall asleep just because I'm so relieved to have the shots behind me.

It's an idea to take my iPod and just listen to music I hadn't thought about that as an option.

It helped, A LOT. I survived, I feel pretty good. LJ was down for most of the day so I wasn't able to post earlier today. I'll get my daily post done now, but I wanted you to know I took your advice and thank you for it.

My daughter just had a root canal a couple of months ago. I was more scared than she was and it was barely an inconvenience. She was fine the following day and the procedure itself wasn't bad at all she said. I had somehow thought they were worse. I was already to nurse her and she didn't need a thing.